The present invention generally relates to storage of nuclear fuel assemblies, and more particularly to a facility for wet storage of such fuel assemblies.
The largest quantity of radioactive (irradiated) material in commercial nuclear power plants is in the form of spent fuel stored under water in spent fuel pools. The nuclear accident in Fukushima in which the pools' cooling systems failed leading to severe damage to the plant highlighted the vulnerability of present day wet storage systems. The Fukushima catastrophe is partially attributed to the disabling of the pools' pumped cooling systems by the flooding caused by tsunami and fracture in the pools' reinforced concrete structure by the earthquake. An abject lesson of Fukushima is to make fuel storage systems tsunami and earthquake proof so as to prevent damage to the infrastructure (namely the fuel pool, building, and supporting systems) needed for keeping the spent fuel pool in safe configuration. Terrorist attacks have introduced crashing aircraft and missiles as Design Basis Threats (DBT) to a spent fuel storage facility.
An improved design is desired.